2017 Karma Revero: More Expensive, Mostly the Same

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The 2018 Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid will offer all-wheel drive, scoot to 62 mph in 4.6 seconds, discharge up to 31 miles on electricity, and sticker for around $100,000. It will be the fanciest, fastest, most tech-savvy plug-in-hybrid sedan on sale, just as the outgoing S E-Hybrid has been since 2013. With that, let us introduce the 2017 Karma Revero.

It’s against that competitive backdrop that a low-volume startup automaker, resurrecting a dated chassis and hardware, will try to persuade buyers to spend more than double what the old, nearly identical Fisker cars are worth. A used 2012 Fisker Karma with just a few thousand miles—the last cars made before the company went bankrupt—can be had for $50,000 or less. The Karma Revero costs $130,000 to start, or at least $19,000 more than what the old Karma sold for when new.

The best thing going for the Revero, or the Destino for that matter, is the seductive style and exaggerated presence that haven’t aged one day since Finnish designer Henrik Fisker unveiled the concept in 2008. Everything else about the Revero, according to the spec sheet, is practically the same. A 21.4-kWh lithium-ion battery (18.2 kWh of which is available) mates to two electric motors, a single-speed gearbox, and a 2.0-liter four-cylinder sourced from General Motors. In total, the Revero musters 403 horsepower (up one) and 981 lb-ft of torque (up 22), fed through the same 4.10:1 drive ratio. Oddly, the gasoline engine, at 235 horsepower, is down 25 ponies. Karma claims 60 mph in 5.4 seconds, which would be more than half a second quicker than the last Karma we tested. Total electric and combined driving range stand at 50 and 300 miles, respectively.

The major difference is the onboard 6.6-kW charger, which cuts recharging times by several hours at either 120 or 240 volts. A new 480-volt DC fast-charge port can top up the battery to 80 percent in 24 minutes, the company said. Inside, a digital 12.3-inch instrument panel, wireless software updates, and various driver assists including forward-collision alert are now available. Also, Fisker’s solar panel roof returns for 200 watts of additional power.

Where to now? Fisker sales topped out at about 2000 cars. Karma, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times, claims 1300 current Fisker owners in the United States who “want to have the first crack” at the Revero. Reality sinks in when reviewing Porsche’s 2015 plug-in sales in the U.S., which amounted to between 8 and 9 percent of total Cayenne and Panamera sales. According to WardsAuto, just a few more than 400 people bought a Panamera S E-Hybrid last year. The new one, as we’ve just detailed, raises the bar and offers considerably more room, total range, performance, and brand panache. But most people aren’t biting.

Then there are the BMW 740e and the Mercedes-Benz S550e, to say nothing of Tesla’s dominance in the luxury-EV market. At least people are being put to work at Karma’s new plant in Moreno Valley, California, and there were enough scrap parts from the old company to fulfill crash testing and other essential development. But without overhauled technology or a completely new car, unfortunately we don’t see them working for long.